Proud Palace give football a forever moment
Crystal Palace's Marc Guehi (centre right) and Joel Ward (centre left) hold the trophy as Crystal Palace players celebrate after the FA Cup final win over Manchester City. Photo by ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images)
FA Cup Final: Crystal Palace 1 (Eze 16) Manchester City 0
This Means More.
Crystal Palace's FA Cup win will mean more to the club, their fans, players and staff than victory could ever have meant for Manchester City, much as Pep Guardiola and his players felt unlucky to lose.
This victory, confirmed by Eberechi Eze's goal in the 16th minute, was not only history in the making for Palace, their first major trophy in 164 years, but possibly the start of a bright new future for one of London's less glamorous clubs. In a season when Arsenal fell short again, Chelsea and Tottenham are still unsure of a trophy or Champions League football, Palace have nailed their place in the football narrative, providing us with one of the most abiding memories of the year.
And by gaining entry to European football for the first time, as well as proving that underdogs can come out on top, there is a real sense that the club can retain the services of their manager Oliver Glasner and some of the in-demand stars of this victory, such as Eze and Marc Guehi.
Steve Parish, the chairman who grew up as a Palace fan in south London and is now planning to rebuild Selhurst Park into a stadium for the 21st century, summed it up when he said: “The FA Cup means so much to my generation and I think this is amazing for the FA Cup.
“Man City have won stuff, and they'll win stuff again, but for us it's special, and I think what it does is every single team that starts out on that journey in the FA Cup, people maybe we’ve beat along the way, could think ‘that could’ve been us, we could have had our day at Wembley’
“So I think it's an inspirational moment not just for this team, not just for South London, but I hope for football as well.”
There were few neutrals sympathising with City's complaints that Dean Henderson should have been sent off for handling outside his area in the 24th minute, VAR deciding that he did not deny Erling Haaland an obvious goalscoring opportunity, as the striker was heading wide rather than at goal.
Henderson did go on to deny plenty of other goalscoring opportunities from City, however, with a string of saves, none better than the one-handed stop that kept out Omar Marmoush's penalty in the 36th minute.
The former Manchester United keeper revealed that his understudy and roommate Remi Matthews had predicted Henderson's man-of-the-match performance. “He said to me this morning 'You're going to have a worldy today and save a penalty' so he maybe talked it into existence, and it came true.”
Henderson also spoke movingly about his father, who passed away earlier this season. “I was looking for him at the end, obviously he could not be there, but I genuinely believe he was with me today, kicking every ball,” said the keeper.
“My neighbour sent me a video of his grave, saying she'd be there with him listening on the radio, and that means the world to me.”
Victory could project Palace to a new audience. “When the chairman signed me he said he wanted to put a new stand up at the stadium, but he needs the players to build that stand, and now we've got the manager to do it too. South London has a huge catchment area and hopefully today we've inspired a generation of new fans, we'll see more and more Palace shirts.”
Glasner is in demand, and may yet be tempted away, but he has already stamped an indelible mark on Palace and given the club's fans an unforgettable day. “I think the biggest achievement we can have, the biggest success, is not lifting the trophy, but to give thousands of our fans in South London a moment for their life.
“We can give them great times. Maybe they have problems at home. We give them hours and days where they forget all of this and can just feel happy and celebrate.
“I think this is the biggest achievement that sportsmen can do, and we did it for our fans. We did it for many people, and that’s why I think everybody who contributed to this success deserves to be proud of the group and the whole club, because it’s the best thing you can do.”
This is the first season City have failed to win a trophy since Guardiola's first, and he has some rebuilding to do. There was no fairytale ending for Kevin De Bruyne, who is leaving, and the Belgian said: “It's not been the season we wanted. We want to win all the time, but sometimes it doesn't work out as you want and you have to take it on the chin and move on.”
De Bruyne is coy about his future, but fulsome about a fantastic decade in City colours: “Today doesn't affect what we've done in ten years, I've won way more than most players and I'll forever be grateful for what we have done as a team.”
C PALACE (3-4-3): Henderson 9; Richards 7, Lacroix 7, Guehi 7 (Lerma 61); Munoz 8, Kamada 8, Wharton 8 (Hughes 87), Mitchell 7; Sarr 6, Mateta 7 (Nketiah 78), Eze 8
MAN CITY (3-4-3): Ortega 6; Akanji 6, Dias 6, Gvardiol 6; Savinho 6 (Echeverri 76), De Bruyne 6, Silva 6 (Gundogan 88), O'Reilly 6; Marmoush 5 (Foden 76), Haaland 5, Doku 7.
Referee: Stuart Attwell 6
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